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Chinese Sweep Worlds Aerials Gold

by

Amanda Revman

2013-03-07 09:30

Emily Cook flying high earlier this season at the 2013 Visa Freestyle International at Deer Valley Resort. (Kirk Paulsen)

VOSS, Norway (March 7) – On a bluebird day in front of the Crown Prince of Norway, Mangtao Xu (women) and Guangpu Qi (men), both of China earned the World Championship titles after monster jumps earned Xu a score of 98 and Qi a massive 138. Team veterans Emily Cook (Belmont, MA) and Dylan Ferguson (Amesbury, MA) earned 10th and 11th place finishes on the World Championship hill in Voss. Cook battled back after a rough training session and a switch of the wind from training landed Ferguson slightly back in his landing.

HIGHLIGHTS

Emily Cook (Belmont, MA) threw a full, full for an 80.95 to finish tenth in the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships.

Cook battled back from three hard training crashes earlier in the day.

Her small mistake came when her skis came slightly apart in her second flip.

Dylan Ferguson (Amesbury, MA) ended the day in 11th.

Ferguson's full, double-full, full earned him a score of 105.31.

The wind changed from a tailwind to a headwind during his final jump and he landed slightly back seat, the small mistake that cost him points.

It was a bluebird day in front of crowd of thousands with Norway’s

Crown Prince Haakon of Norway was in the crowd cheering on the athletes.

Mangtao Xu earned gold for the women and Guangpu Qi took the win for the men.

Dual moguls wrap up the freestyle showing Friday at 8 a.m. ET

QUOTESEmily CookToday was a tough day but overall I am incredibly happy with this season and this event is a huge motivator as I look towards summer training. I couldn't be happier with my second place rank this season and am really looking forward to begin training for the Olympic season when we return to Park City.

Dylan FergusonThe weather and the site were in unbelievable condition today. We had ble sky for the first time all week and the crowd was great. Unfortunately I didn't put down the competition jump I was hoping to. I had some really good training jumps but couldn't stick it as well as I wanted.

It's not the ideal situation but Norway has been great and they put on an awesome World Championships for all the athletes. A huge congrats to all of today's competitors, everyone showed up and competed really well!

Todd Ossian, Aerials Head CoachI had a good feeling about the day, Emily and Dylan are both elite athletes and they both could have won the World Championship title here but it didn't work out like that today. That's part of the sport though and why we all love it so much, the unpredictability of it all. It wasn't the weather that we had to battle against or anything like that. Every athlete here showed up and Emily and Dylan didn't have bad jumps, it was just the little mistakes that prevented them from moving on.

As frustrating as these results are, they don't define their season. They both had the best seasons of their career. Emily is ranked second and Dylan is ranked fourth. That is what we need to walk away from here remembering. As a team we have progressed so much. We went form being ranked fifth overall to second. We've had a really great season but this is motivation for everyone to focus this summer. To work harder than we ever have so that we are as ready and as capable as we can be in 2014.

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